It’s smart to target the consultancies you approach for work after you graduate carefully, but University of Hertfordshire graduate Brinley Clark took this idea to a whole new level. On discovering The Partners’ work as a student and seeing the similarities to his own humour and approach, the graphic design student knew that was where he wanted to end up when he graduated.

Choosing to write his dissertation on The Partners’ ‘bible’ A Smile in the Mind, written by founder member David Stuart, Brinley also spent a brief internship at a practice established by two former The Partners employees called 300 Million, as well as in-house at Virgin Atlantic. “That stood me in great stead because it let me get a feel for how they worked,” he explains.

His dedication paid off when he bumped into The Partners creative director Nick Clark at The New Designers multi-institution graduate show, and got the opportunity to talk to him about some of the projects they were working on. He was offered a job almost straightaway, and has since worked on everything from big branding work to small pro-bono projects.

Perhaps one of the most high profile has been a project for Deloitte, which saw Brinley work with The Partners team to create environmental graphics for the security check-in area at the World Economic Forum. It was a challenge to make it better year-on-year, but the hand-drawn look created in collaboration with Scriberia won some big fans, including Boris Johnson.

Brand identity for mobile hairdresser Bunny’s

At the other end of the scale, Brinley has also worked solo on some small identity projects, such as for freelance mobile hairdresser Bunny’s, which he’s just entered for a number of awards. “She’s called bunny because she talks a lot, she rabbits,” laughs Brinley. “My idea was to combine the bunny ears with scissors, and play with the concept that because she’s freelance she pops up everywhere and anywhere.”

“You can do something on such a large scale like at The World Economic Forum and then help out a local hairdresser – that’s the beauty of The Partners.”